Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Researchers devise system to accelerate the process of making life-saving vaccines

Researchers at Brigham Young University have devised a system to speed up the process of making life-saving vaccines for new viruses.

20 Nov 2015

Last resort antibiotics may no longer work

E.coli has become resistant to the last line of antibiotics we have left and untreatable bugs may already be circulating in Britain, warn scientists.

19 Nov 2015

Combatting viral and bacterial lung infections with volatile anesthetics: an interview with Dr Chakravarthy

Inhaled anesthetics are fairly common all over the world for minor and extensive surgical procedures in patients of all age groups. In the olden days when anesthesia was first developed, ether was the first inhaled anesthetic. That has been replaced, with the more recent discoveries of sevoflurane, isoflurane, and desflurane.

9 Nov 2015

BD reports quarterly adjusted revenues of $3.067 billion for fourth fiscal quarter 2015

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technology company, today reported quarterly adjusted revenues of $3.067 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2015, an increase of 39.3 percent over the prior-year period as reported, or 49.1 percent on a currency-neutral basis.

4 Nov 2015

Self-disseminating vaccines could prevent EID transmission from animals to humans

The 2014/2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa shone the spotlight not only on the unpreparedness of local health services and science to deal with the pandemic, but also on the phenomenon of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs).

2 Nov 2015

Despite reduced HIV/AIDS deaths, disease still persists in South Africa

After peaking in 2007, AIDS mortality in South Africa has decreased with the widespread introduction of effective antiretroviral therapy, according to updated estimates published in AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society. AIDS is published by Wolters Kluwer.

30 Oct 2015

Sinovac Dalian receives approval to start human clinical trials of varicella vaccine candidate

Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, today announced that one of its subsidiaries, Sinovac Dalian, has received approval to begin human clinical trials on its varicella vaccine candidate. The clinical trial application for the varicella vaccine was officially accepted by the China Food and Drug Administration in January 2013.

26 Oct 2015

Drug engineered from bananas could fight off wide range of viruses

A banana a day may not keep the doctor away, but a substance originally found in bananas and carefully edited by scientists could someday fight off a wide range of viruses, new research suggests.

23 Oct 2015

CDC publishes reports on infectious and noninfectious diseases

Beginning with the Oct. 23, 2015, Supplements to Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), CDC will publish the summaries of all notifiable conditions – infectious and noninfectious – at the same time.

23 Oct 2015

Rutgers School of Nursing takes lead in $6 million nationwide effort to prevent new HIV infections

Rutgers School of Nursing is taking the lead in a $6 million nationwide effort to greatly reduce new HIV infections - a battle complicated by both the aging of career HIV health care professionals and a failure to engage all people living with HIV into treatment.

19 Oct 2015

New national report on use of antiviral drugs to treat, prevent influenza

A major new national report into the use of antiviral drugs (neuraminidase inhibitors) to treat and prevent influenza has drawn heavily on two pieces of research undertaken at The University of Nottingham.

9 Oct 2015

UIC selected as one of six research centers to help control infectious diseases in health facilities

The University of Illinois at Chicago has been selected as one of six research centers in the U.S. to help develop a comprehensive new strategy to control Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases in health facilities.

6 Oct 2015

Missouri schools underprepared for pandemics, natural disasters and bioterrorism attacks

Missouri schools are no more prepared to respond to pandemics, natural disasters, and bioterrorism attacks than they were in 2011, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

6 Oct 2015

BiondVax to begin Phase IIb clinical trial of universal influenza vaccine in Europe

BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. announced today that it received regulatory clearance from the Hungarian Regulatory Authority (National Institute of Pharmacology and Nutrition, OGYEI) and the Central Ethics Committee in Budapest to initiate a Phase IIb clinical trial. The initiation meeting was scheduled for today, September 30, 2015, together with the partners from the UNISEC European Consortium.

30 Sep 2015

Soft palate study reveals how flu viruses acquire the ability to move between people

National Institutes of Health scientists and their colleagues identified a previously unappreciated role for the soft palate during research to better understand how influenza (flu) viruses acquire the ability to move efficiently between people.

26 Sep 2015

H7N9 influenza vaccine failure may be due to immune camouflage, study reveals

The avian influenza A (H7N9) virus has been a major concern since the first outbreak in China in 2013. Due to its high rate of lethality and pandemic potential, H7N9 vaccine development has become a priority for public health officials. However, candidate vaccines have failed to elicit the strong immune responses necessary to protect from infection.

25 Sep 2015

Soft palate plays key role in viruses' ability to spread

Flu viruses come in many strains, and some are better equipped than others to spread from person to person. Scientists have now discovered that the soft palate -- the soft tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth -- plays a key role in viruses' ability to travel through the air from one person to another.

24 Sep 2015

Novel mechanism may help explain the virulence of 1918 'Spanish' flu

While yearly outbreaks of flu kill about 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide, the 1918 "Spanish" flu infected one-third of the world's population and killed 50 million to 100 million. Chad Petit, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has discovered a novel mechanism for one 1918 flu virus protein that may help explain the virulence of that unusually deadly pandemic.

23 Sep 2015

New technology may allow mass production of flu vaccines

Vaccines to protect against an avian influenza pandemic as well as seasonal flu may be mass produced more quickly and efficiently using technology described today (Sept. 2) by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the journal Nature Communications.

3 Sep 2015

Volatile anesthetics may combat viral and bacterial infections in the lung

In use for more than a century, inhaled anesthetics like nitrous oxide and halothane have made modern surgery possible. Now, in experiments in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have added to evidence that certain so-called "volatile" anesthetics -- commonly used during surgeries -- may also possess powerful effects on the immune system that can combat viral and bacterial infections in the lung, including influenza and pneumonia.

2 Sep 2015